He told her that he tried to practice once daily for an hour or more.
"Don't do that," she responded. "When you grow up, up time won't come in long stretches. Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them---five or ten before school, after lunch, between chores. Spread your practice throughout the day, and music will become a part of your life."
Her advise obviously worked. Erskine became a concert pianist who performed with the New York Philharmonic, and he later served as president of the Juilliard School of Music and director of the Metropolitan Opera Association. He also went on to teach literature at Columbia University and wrote more than forty-five books. His most famous work, The Private Life of Helen of Troy, was written as he commuted to Columbia.
SUCCESS ONE DAY AT A TIME
- John C. Maxwell
2 comments:
Great philosophy, and it works!
- An Anonymous Student
I've learned that you cannot always equate results with process, and though practice may make perfect for some, for others, it just reinforces defeat. Whether John Erskine did or did not act on his teacher's advice to study in short sessions cannot be assumed here, he may have just as well ignored the advice, or added it to his routine, or taken a break from piano and concentrated on literature...teaching is often less personal than learning is a chore, and whether taken in small bites, or big gulps, study and practice usually pay off if one's passion is strong, and long-lived.
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